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U.S. stocks firmed up even more in afternoon trading Friday as Wall Street appeared to applaud the progress and details of a comprehensive tax reform plan that leaders in Congress hope to get to President Trump’s desk before Christmas.

X Meanwhile, the buying frenzy in Bitcoin-related trading vehicles heated up another notch. Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), featured in IBD’s Stock Market Today columns as it broke out of a very deep cup with handle at 985.10 last month, surged another 8% to a new high of 2,574.75.

Volume was running mildly below its 50-day average pace. The ETF now has a 500-point cushion above its “short-term” 10-day moving average.

The Nasdaq composite led the way, rising more than 1% on the back of strength in big-cap techs. Microsoft (MSFT) cleared a new 86.30 entry in a well-crafted flat base. The Xbox, cloud computing and business software giant rallied more than 2% to 86.58 in double normal volume.

The 5% chase zone in Microsoft goes up to 90.62.

Microsoft is back on a mild profit growth track. The megacap has grown earnings per share vs. year-ago levels in nine of the past 10 quarters, and Wall Street expects fiscal 2019 profit to rise 12% after a 1% dip in the current fiscal year that ends in June 2018.

The S&P 500 rallied almost 0.9% and the Dow Jones industrials nearly 0.6%. At least 10 stocks in the 30-stock Dow Jones industrials lifted 1 point or more.

Volume is running sharply higher vs. the same time Thursday as options on stocks and indexes expire.

The S&P SmallCap 600 surged 1.8%.

Apple (AAPL) rallied nearly 0.7% to 173.33. Trading was brisk amid reports that the architects of the new tax reform plan want to raise the tax rate on overseas corporate profits that get repatriated back into the U.S.

Apple, one of the star tech turnarounds of 2017, is now nearly 47% since its early-January breakout from a first-stage cup with handle. That base was also a bottoming base, which is bullish.